Over the past year since I launched my business I’ve learned so much. I spent the majority of my time worrying about sales before going freelance, that I didn’t even consider all the other aspects of having my own digital marketing company.
Ensuring my invoices are sent, tracked and paid is obviously an important part of being your own boss, otherwise pay-day will never come. Once clients start rolling in, it’s easy to lose track of who’s paid, who hasn’t and what’s in the pipeline. I’m a big fan of Excel, and I keep everything neat in spreadsheets but I’ve recently ditched it thanks to Albert.
Albert isn’t an expensive accountant that sits in my office (because that would be pretty weird considering I work from home); Albert is the easiest, completely free invoicing app for UK freelancers. In a nutshell, the app lets you send beautiful invoices with your own logo, making invoicing literally as simple as sending a photo from your phone.
Created by freelancers for other freelancers, Albert tells me if an invoice has bounced or it’s been opened – sneaky, huh!? The timeline for each invoice provides you with updates so you can track every step of your invoicing process.
Being able to see all outstanding and late invoices makes it so much easier to ensure nothing slips through the net, and I get paid for all the hard work I put into my campaigns. The best thing about it is that when I’ve sent a batch of invoices due at the end of the month, it’s reassuring to see what’s coming in (because believe me, trying to remember off the top of your head isn’t the best way to run a business).
Occasionally if I couldn’t access my spreadsheet on the go, I’d try to remind myself of invoices I needed to chase or send – this isn’t professional and it’s a messy way to run a business. Starring emails, pinning sticking notes to my laptop and emailing myself reminders are a thing of a past. Not to mention that when it comes to collating information for my account, the Albert one-touch system is far easier than faffing through notes.
The Albert app was featured by Apple in ‘New Apps We Love’, it has hundreds of 5-star reviews and it’s available for free to download! Unfortunately, it isn’t available for Android just yet, but the team is working hard to bring Albert to Android.
Did I mention that you can even add emojis to your invoice? I’m sold! 🦄💖🎉